Understanding People
by bashfulglowfly
Summary: Sai tells Shisui that he still doesn't understand people.


**Understanding People**

 **By Bashfulglowfly**

"I still don't understand people."

The normally monotone voice was a bit plaintive.

Shisui smiled gently at his kinsman. The boy had been through more than any four normal people in his short life, so Shisui and the rest of the Clan, were more than willing to give him some leeway.

Sai had disappeared when he was two-year-old. His parents had suffered a horrific car accident. Local authorities tried to claim that the boy's body had burned completely to ash in the resulting car fire or his body had been dragged off by wild animals.

The Uchiha Clan called bullshit.

They conducted their own autopsy and discovered that Sai's parents had been given the drug Ketamine and that there were subtle, but obvious to those who knew what to look for, signs of torture.

Madara, who had stepped down from being the Clan Head some years before, ordered Fugaku to question the coroner who had conducted the autopsy and determine if he was corrupt or just a fuck-up.

Fugaku agreed, even though he should be doing things like this since he was the Head of the Clan, but he didn't need the additional headaches Madara and the other elders could bring. He did put his foot down and refused to bring along Mikoto because 1) she need to be home because Itachi was getting up during the night to read forbidden (due to his age) books in the family library and was reading them aloud to 2-year-old Sasuke and 2) Bringing Mikoto would have been overkill.

Fugaku paid a late night visit to the coroner but he never admitted aloud that he was rather disappointed it that it only took the breaking of one finger before the coroner confessed. Not only was he a fuck-up he was a junkie fuck-up as well.

It is to be noted that in the early hours of the next morning, 911 received a call from the Head Coroner's wife stating that her husband had fallen down two flights of stairs…in their ranch-style home.

It is also to be noted that in the early hours of that same morning, Uchiha Mikoto had been given a speeding ticket less than a mile away from the Head Coroner's house.

While the Uchiha did not publicly make a great deal of noise about two Clan members being murdered and their young son disappearing, word spread amongst other Clans with Clan Leaders ordering members to keep an eye for the missing boy and to watch their own backs.

Twelve years later, a military operation surrounded and captured a terrorist base. Many of the terrorists were killed or committed suicide but a few were captured alive. Mainly because they were too badly wounded to kill themselves.

What bothered many of the soldiers was the fact that most of the terrorists were children. The oldest ones were about fourteen years old. Not much older than that. Only a few adults had been captured alive.

Most of the surviving children were too injured to question at the time. So they were brought to the nearest military hospital to be treated.

A Senju medic assigned to one of the terrorist children recovering from surgery knew an Uchiha when she damned well saw one. She quickly took a picture of the boy with her phone and set it to her college roommate, a Nara who was married to an Uchiha, along with a short note.

All Hell broke loose in less than 24 hours.

Senior Uchiha officers swarmed down. Blood was drawn from the boy to be DNA tested. He was separated from the others that had survived. When the boy was questioned, he revealed that he had been shot by one of the officers – one that had survived.

That officer was interrogated and he admitted that he'd been ordered to execute that particular boy if the base fell to their enemies. When the paperwork that had not been destroyed was examined, the investigators discovered banking records…which lead them to the one who was funding the terrorists.

Prominent Konoha citizen and philanthropist Danzo Shimura.

Needless to say, the shit hit the fan…and it spread far and wide. Not only was Shimura arrested but two other prominent citizens were as well: Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane had been found to be working hand and hand with Shimura in fomenting terrorism across Asia. Those three arrests led to dozens of others. They weren't able to arrest everyone because many committed suicide to prevent further shame being brought onto their families. But they arrested enough to set back terrorism back several years.

The boy, who had since been told that his name was Sai, was eventually returned to the Uchiha Clan. Many in the Clan had difficulty accepting the fact that the boy had been trained to be a terrorist but there were others who felt that Sai would be an asset, not only to the Uchiha Clan, but to Konoha. He just had to be…redirected.

For the first few months, Sai spent a portion of every day with psychiatrists and therapists. Later it slowed down to once a week. Shisui had been assigned to mentor the now 15-year-old and help him to adjust to his new world.

Shisui managed to convince Sai that he didn't need to walk around smiling, regardless of what the shrinks said. First of all, it was rather creepy to see someone walk around with a smile all the time and Sai didn't really smile well. Shisui told the younger boy that when he was ready, Sai would find something to make him smile. Until then…don't worry about it.

One of the therapies Sai went through was drawing and it was found he was very good at it. He was encouraged to learn all he wanted about it. Every now and then, Shisui would come across as the boy was painting or drawing and Sai would have the most sweetly charming smile that Shisui had ever seen…since himself, of course.

Shisui reached out and ruffled Sai's hair. "Sai, you've only been in the real world for just over a year. You can't expect to understand everything about people in that amount of time. I've lived longer than you and I don't understand people a lot of the times."

Sai's brow wrinkled a bit. "What does it mean when a girl says that you're hot?" He looked up at Shisui. "I wasn't hot. In fact, I think the air conditioning was up too high."

Shisui covered his mouth with his hand for a moment until he regained control. He slung an arm across Sai's shoulders, "Ah, my young apprentice…you have much to learn. And I will be happy to be your teacher."


End file.
